When life experience matters: A narrative exploration of students' learning in nursing education
Engelsk titel: When life experience matters: A narrative exploration of students' learning in nursing education
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Författare:
Heggen, Kristin
;
Jordal, Kristin
Email: kristin.jordal@hbv.no
Språk: Eng
Antal referenser: 48
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 15095220
Sammanfattning
The gap between "theory" and "practice" is a much-debated issue in nursing education, and one
of the challenges is to strengthen the coherence between the theoretical content of the
education programme and the student’s practical experiences. The students’ life experience,
understood as experiences from their non-professional sphere of life, has not been assigned
sufficient attention in the discussions on the theory-practice relationship. This article presents a
qualitative study with a narrative approach and a socio-cultural perspective on the students’
learning process. The question focused on how first-year students perceive and reflect on the
relationship between their life experience and the content of the nursing education. The results
prove how students use stories in a meaning-making process to bridge the gap between their
own life experience and the nursing curriculum. The students’ storytelling creates a narrative
coherence, but at the same time their ability to make these connections appears to be an
unexplored resource in teaching. Hence, the paper concludes that the students’ life experience
represents an unexplored potential in nursing education.